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Summary This discussion deals primarily with the European secondary grassland, especially meadows and pastures. The principal constituents of this vegetation are about 20 species. Particular attention is paid to its evolution under the influence of man. In addition to the natives (members of natural vegetation cover) there are several species or races which are restricted to man‐made habitats. It is suggested that these latter are not native to the area of present distribution, but have immigrated under differentiation from abroad (the minor part) or evolved in situ (the major part). The significance of hybridization and introgression is stressed. It is contended that grassland evolution is still in progress, an important factor being the close interaction between cultivated grasses and their wild relatives in extra‐Mediterranean Europe, the center of diversity and origin of meadow and pasture grasses.

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Alopecurus aequalis Sobol., Cleistogenes serotina (L.) Keng, Heteropogon contortus (L.) P. Beauv. ex Roem. et Schult., Hordelymus europaeus (L.) Harz. The occurrence in Iran of Poa compressa L., P. densa Troitsky, and Bothriochloa bladhii (Retz.) S.T. Blake which were not mentioned in Rechinger's Flora Iranica but were reported in later papers is confirmed. The maps of distribution in the Park are provided for the treated species.

Summary Greuter, W. & Scholz, H.: Phragmites in Crete, Cenchrus frutescens, and the nomenclature of the common reed (Gramineae). – Taxon 45: 521‐523. 1996. – ISSN 0040‐0262. Phragmites is represented by two taxa on the S. Aegean island of Crete (Greece), one of which corresponds to the cosmopolitan common reed, P. australis. The other deviates in several features and is here described and named as a new species, P. frutescens H. Scholz; it has been studied in the wild and was found to have a peculiar, frutescent, branched habit, to produce inflorescences only occasionally, and never fertile flowers; reproduction appears to take place only vegetatively, by stolons and by leafy propagules replacing the flowers. The Cretan reed has been taxonomically equated by some authors with a doubtful Linnean species, Cenchrus frutescens, and the latter name has been recently proposed for rejection so as to prevent displacement of P. australis by the older supposed synonym. Although one of the original elements of C. frutescens arguably belongs to P. frutescens, it is an old illustration that cannot be interpreted with ultimate certainty; furthermore it is in major conflict with the remainder of the protologue. Choice of the epithet frutescens for the new species eliminates future uncertainty and makes the proposal to reject C. frutescens unnecessary. Those who (like one of the authors) are unconvinced of the specific distinctness of the Cretan reed are free to treat it at an appropriate infraspecific level under P. australis.

Lolium edwardii sp. nova (Gramineae) and its relationship with Schedonorus sect. Plantynia DUMORT. With one Figure and one Map SummaryLolium edwardii, probably an endemic of the Canary Islands, is new to science. It differs clearly from L canuriense by means of morphological characters provided in a key, and of its ecological preferences and distribution patterns presented for the Island of El Hierro. The relationship to the genus Schedonorus P.BEAUV. is discussed.